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Monday, 23 June 2014

Guest author - Jo Marshall. Leaf and the Long Ice.

Jo Marshall lives in the Pacific Northwest near volcanoes, rainforests, and coastal wetlands. She is concerned about climate change impacting the wildlife and forests in this region, and so her timely, eco-literature novels describe this transforming world by means of fantastic adventures about impish, stick creatures called Twigs. Her website is listed below. Copyright belongs to the Author, used with permission.

Leaf & the Long
Ice

Chapter One

Buds

The wolverine escaped the
gray wolves only to be trapped in the tunnels at the glacier’s edge.She had splashed through streams of melted
ice, and skidded from one blue tube to another.Now she realized there was no way out.Young but shrewd, Musty was not afraid.She backed into a low cave, and quieted her heavy panting.Only one howler at a time could attack her
here, and she was a ferocious fighter.

Musty imagined the pack
tracking her to this one place of safety with its narrow opening.How one might crawl, its belly pressed to the
ice so it could wedge its body inside. How its fangs would gleam in the
dark.Musty held back a deep, snarling
growl, and listened.They’ll never make it this far.

But these howlers were excited
by the hunt – these tall, gangly wolves wearing shaggy coats that sparkled with
snow stirred by alpine winds.Nose to
ice, eyes narrowed, they sprinted into the glacier’s maze of tunnels.They padded over scratches made by Musty’s claws,
and discovered where she hid.One wolf
snarled at the rest to stay back, and flattened itself on the ice, seeking the
pungent scent of the wolverine.

A moment later there was a
sickening CRACK! as the glaciershifted.Massive icicles showered Musty, and stabbed the howler.Startled yelps echoed within the tunnel as
the other wolves scrambled away.At a
distance, the pack paced back and forth, waiting and watching.Then the glistening pile of spears fell
away.The injured howler staggered
backwards, and shook the blood from its back.The pack returned to sniff and paw half-heartedly at the crystal debris,
but their prey was now beyond reach, so they trotted back to the brilliant
light of day at the tunnel’s gaping mouth.A distant, lone howl from the forest far below the glacier greeted
them.For a time, the pack joined
in.Then they grew silent.The howlers crossed sheets of glittering ice,
and vanished.

Back in the tunnel, Musty
clawed her way out.

Far below Echo Peak, an impish,
stick creature named Leaf looked up, startled by the mournful call of the
howlers.The glare from the white,
glistening glacier on the massive mountain’s tip blinded him, so he shielded
his eyes, and squinted to see better.A
moment later, the cries of the howlers faded away.Leaf did not fear them because he was a Twig.
Since he was no taller than a blue jay, it was easy to hide in the fern-like
fronds of ancient cedar and hemlock, or be overlooked within their gnarled roots.And he usually smelled like bark or dirt,
anyway.

Leaf stood ankle-deep in the
cool pond, and studied his toes thoughtfully.He had mashed them deep into the mud, so he could no longer see how
curly and root-like they grew.He
wriggled each one.At once, bubbles rose
to the surface, grew into rainbow-spattered balls, and burst.They made a very satisfying burp!Leaf grinned.

“Hey, Leaf!Watch us!Watch us jump!” screeched two annoying voices from a cliff high above
Leaf.

The shouts broke Leaf’s
concentration.He looked up, and scowled.

On the edge of the cliff, where
the water fell, his younger brothers - twin buds - waved and shouted to get his
attention.Teeny leaves had just begun
to sprout all over their stick bodies.Their leafy hair had not even uncurled yet, so their heads were covered
with knob-like bulbs.

“I never stop looking at you!”Leaf
yelled back.Buddy and Burba weren’t
sprouts any more.Still, they demanded a
lot of attention.The twins had grown so
much since the cold season.It’s because of Mumma’s earth-stew and this
hot season sun, Leaf decided.The
twins now stood chest high to him even though their bellies hadn’t lost their
bulby look.Yet Mumma still thought of
the buds as young shoots, and so it was Leaf’s job to take care of them while
Mumma, Pappo, and Fern were off on their journey to the gorge.

Mist swirled high in the air,
and all around the falls.At the top of
the cliff a flat, granite boulder jutted out, and split the flow of the water
in half.The water unwound like two
ribbons.Their lacy splashes murmured fssshhhfsshh as they billowed up, and
sank into the pond.

Leaf searched for his
brothers.At last, he spotted their eyes
peeking through the mist.Tiny hands
appeared beside grins as the twins tried to swirl the mist away so their big
brother could see them better.Two
orange eyes sparkled like fire.There’s Burba, groaned Leaf.Why do
I always feel like I’m sitting on a bristle burr when I see him?Next to Burba blinked two large, golden
eyes above a delighted smile.And there’s Buddy, Leaf grinned at his
favorite twin bud.

The twins jostled each other on
the granite slab to be near the edge, but Leaf didn’t worry about them.He had tied pine cones around them to keep
them afloat should they fall.The hot
season had begun so early the scales of the cones had already opened and
cracked from the heat, their seeds cast out long ago.Leaf had crushed the scales on one side, and
tied the cones with tough honeysuckle vines around the buds’ bellies, so now
the twins perched on the slab like fat, bristly cones waving arms and legs.

Behind them, a curious cluster
of sticks, mud, and stones stretched out between granite cliffs rising on each
side of the waterfall.It was an
enormous beaver dam built by a colony of goliath chompers – friends of Pappo.A few seasons ago, the chompers had built
this dam, and saved Leaf’s home, the Old Seeder.The ancient tree had almost drowned when the
river called the Rushing Waters had flooded.Now only a pretty stream slipped out under the dam.

Behind the dam, a turquoise
colored lake filled a deep valley in the mountains, and spread out along the
slopes of Echo Peak.Near the lakeshore
beaver lodges dotted the surface.It was
an unusual place for a chomper colony – an alpine lake – but these goliath
chompers were loyal friends.Leaf was
grateful the colony had made their home here for the chompers kept the dam
strong.

“Watch!Watch us!” Buddy and Burba screeched again.

Leaf forced his green,
almond-shaped eyes into round circles, stared at the twins with exaggerated
interest, waved, and nodded.Bright
green leaves – his unruly hair – hung over his eyes. He brushed the leaves
aside, and shouted, “Go on then!I’m
watching!”

Buddy and Burba stepped to the
edge of the slab, held out their arms, and spun circles on the slippery
granite.“Look at us!” they yelled.Buddy’s giggles floated with the mist.

Then, with an unexpected
side-step, Burba slipped behind Buddy, and shoved him hard.Buddy tumbled off the slab.With a shocked look on his face, he
disappeared headfirst into the waterfall.

Leaf sucked in his breath.That
Burba!He might snap Buddy in half like
that!

With a gleeful shout, Burba
jumped into the waterfall, and popped up beside Buddy, who bobbed around
coughing in the middle of the pool.Burba laughed and laughed.Ripples carried them to the bank where Leaf stood waiting.

“Did ja’ like my new trick,
Leaf? Did ja’?” yelled Burba.

Leaf scowled.“Get out!Get out now!”He dragged the
twins up onto the muddy embankment.He
untied the vines, and threw the cones into the pond.Buddy scooted onto a flat rock.Burba stood in the mud, wearing a stubborn
smirk.Leaf turned to Burba, placed his
hands on his hips, and frowned.“That
was dangerous,” he growled.

Burba scooped up a handful of
mud, and threw it as hard as he could at Leaf. “Then play with us!” he shrieked.

Leaf ducked.“Stop it, Burba!”

“How ’da ya know it’s me?”
Burba cried out with an evil sparkle in his eyes.“We look the same, ya know.Ya don’t know it’s me!I bet you think I’m Buddy!How do ya’ know I’m not Buddy!I could not be me, you know!”

Buddy giggled.He had a gurgling sort of voice, and usually
grinned and blinked a lot whenever he spoke.“Leaf knows dat ya not me, ya silly. Ya can’t fool Leaf.”

Burba sneered, “You’re just
mad, Leaf, ‘cause Fern got to go with Mumma and Pappo, and you hav’ta stay
here, and take care of us!”He scooped
up another handful of mud.In a
sing-song cadence, he marched around in a circle, and chanted, “Fern gets to
see Star!Fern gets to see Star!And you doonnn’t!”With an off-balanced whirl, he threw the mud
ball so hard he tumbled headfirst into the pond.The mud ball smacked Leaf’s belly, and
splattered on his face.

That’s
it!Leaf sprang over, and
caught Burba’s arm.He dragged him
deeper into the pond, and dunked him.Burba fought Leaf’s grip.He
clawed at his fist, but Leaf dunked him again, and again.At last Leaf was satisfied, and he let him
go.

Sopping wet and spluttering,
Burba scampered on top of the rock, and sat beside Buddy, who watched Leaf with
an anxious expression.

“Stay there!” Leaf
ordered.He crossed his arms, planted
his feet apart, and blocked Burba’s path back to the mud and the pond.What a
slimerslug! Leaf thought, but he didn’t say it.Burba was right.I
should have gone to the gorge, not Fern!But Pappo had told him it was Fern’s turn to have an adventure, and
so Leaf was stuck taking care of the buds.They were too much trouble to take anywhere.Bored
to brittles by buds in a too hot season.“Time for your nap!”Leaf
declared.

“No!”The buds blurted out with a unified shout of
defiance.

Leaf scowled, and then issued a
dare.“All right, then.No sapsuckers!I’ll eat them all myself!”He marched off at once on a path that
wandered between enormous trees.“Come
on, both of you, whoever you are!” he yelled over his shoulder.“I might even tell you the story about Pappo
and the rover on the Long Ice.If you
race me to the Old Seeder, I promise to tell an extra long story!”

With a surprising burst of
speed, the buds shot past Leaf.They
hopped over sun-spotted ferns, and ducked under flat-topped mushrooms.In no time at all, the twins reached the
wandering roots of their home, a massive, towering tree – the Old Seeder – the
tallest tree in the forest.

Burba shouted, “I’ll get to the
knothole first!”He shoved Buddy into
the moss between the roots, leapt on the trunk, grasped the deep furrows in the
bark, and scuttled up the Old Seeder as fast as a beetle escapes a woodpecker.

Leaf pulled Buddy from the
soggy moss, and brushed him off.He gave
him a quick kiss on his head.“Go on
now, Buddy. It doesn’t matter who’s first – it only matters who climbs the best.I’ll be right behind you.”

“Danks, Leaf,” burbled Buddy
with a hopeful expression.“I’m best,
right?”With slow and painstaking
movements, Buddy picked his route hesitantly like a praying mantis walks –
swaying back and forth, and never looking back.Being afraid to climb was a funny way for a Twig to be, but Buddy grew
dizzy when he looked down from their knothole, and so he preferred to stay
inside.

Half-way up the trunk, they
reached a weird-looking knothole.It was
huge, twisted, and looked like the fierce face of a grizzly.Stuck in its center was a small door with a
round window.Just outside the knothole,
Burba hung over the side of their porch-branch, and smirked at his brother’s
progress.Finally, Buddy pulled himself
up on the branch, and blew a relieved spit-bubble.“I’m here!” he announced proudly.

“Great!” muttered Burba.“Come on, Leaf.We wanna’ hear about the rover!Pappo and the rover!”

As Leaf opened the door, the
twins dove through the knothole, and tumbled across their large hollow, which
was stuffed full of moss chairs, woven flax rugs, and sun-spotted pillows.They snatched sapsuckers and berry cakes from
the cupboards, and shoved them in their mouths at the same time.

Leaf enjoyed a moment alone by
the door.There was a cool breeze from
the glaciers of Echo Peak.The view is awesome this high up!Leaf could see the twinkle of the
waterfall and the turquoise lake behind the chomper dam.He gazed at the rolling Blue Mountains on the
other side of the Wide Valley, and smiled, remembering his friends, Rustle and
Feather, and their adventure together. And, of course, the goliath chompers had built
a gigantic dam over there, too, but since the horrible flood, the colony had
moved here.The wide valley!The popper
fields!Now that was a journey!

Leaf sighed.He stood on tiptoe, and tried to spot the gray,
burned trees of the North Forest and the deep gorge where his friends Star and
Moon lived, but it was too far away.The
vast forest only turned to a drifting, green haze on the horizon.Leaf shivered at the memory of being chased
by swarms of barkbiters, but then he laughed when he thought of the brightly
feathered Cappynuts twins.I bet Ruffle and Tuffle are having fun
guarding the South Forest from barkbiters!

“Come on, Leaf!” yelled
Burba.The twins sat by the cupboards
with expectant expressions, and globs of sapsuckers stuck on their fingers.

“Yes, yes.A story,” Leaf said with a resigned
shrug.“A long one.”He grabbed some blue petals, dipped them in
an acorn filled with water, and tossed them to the twins.

They patted their faces, dropped
the petals to the floor, and rushed down a narrow tunnel that led to their own
small hollow.Burba trampled on Buddy’s
feet as he squeezed past so he could be first in bed.On the headboards of their large, rocking
baskets Mumma had woven a chipmunk for Buddy, and a porcupine for Burba.In their hollow, sunbeams pierced tiny
knotholes, and crisscrossed through golden dust stirred by the buds’ scampering
feet.Fluffy dandelion heads skittered
across the floor.A collection of Twig
Branch dolls made from different trees like hemlock and maple sat on shelves
dug out of the soft, scented cedar. The buds lay on their bellies, and bunched
their soft, leaf-woven quilt-covies tight against their chins, ready to be
frightened out of their wits.

1 comment:

What an amazing, and amusing story, Jo. Your easy to read structure and plot line makes me want to beg for more. I've already bookmarked your website for a future, more leisurely read. Thanks Allan, for featuring this very talented writer.

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Wall of War

Allan Hudson

About Me

My mother taught me to read, to like books, when I was very young. She also taught me how to write. I grew up in the country, even went to a one-room school which was right across the road from our house. She was the teacher. The days I missed were few.

Writing is so much fun and even though I started later in life, I am so happy to realize my dream. Having this blog so I can share other people's work gives me great pleasure.

I've had many adventures in my life. I've travelled throughout North America, gone skydiving, rock climbing, wilderness camping. I craft stained glass and I enjoy woodworking. I'm blessed with many good friends.

I live in the seaside community of Cocagne, New Brunswick, Canada. My wife's name is Gloria. My son's name is Adam and my stepsons' names are Christopher (Mireille) and Mark (Nathalie) Young. My grandchildren are Matthieu, Natasha and Damien. I love them all.

Thank you for visiting. I hope you enjoy my blog. You can reach me by leaving a comment and/or your email address and I'll respond.

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Wall of War is available at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Cover to Cover in Riverview, Cocagne Variety in Cocagne and from the author.

The Douglas Kyle Memorial Award for Fiction

My story - The Ship Breakers - received Honorable Mention in the Douglas Kyle Memorial awards for New Brunswick Writers Federation's short story category. Watch for it with the coming selection of short stories to be published in 2018